Box Forest offers a legal service we call The Lawyer is IN.  We offer a light touch, affordable legal service, all about sustainability and ease of doing business.  Not all legal work is simple, but we reckon 80% of contracts can be done in 4 pages or less.

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OUR CLIENTS - we offer quality commercial legal work for a major client base that is typically not targeted or served that well by law firms.  Commercial firms are set up to service: a) enterprises with large workflows; b) volume processing, c) major projects, and d) litigation.  Nothing wrong with that. 

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Clients outside those categories can find themselves priced out, cutting corners or trying workarounds.  But some projects need decent legal attention – launching new operations, large financial or resource commitments, governance and compliance, customer-facing documents. 

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We focus on clients with small or no internal legal team, and a need for quality legal / project work from an experienced lawyer.  We don’t rely on volume of work or size of transaction.

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OUR MODEL – the law firm and agency profit models rely on high charges to service a high cost base.  Our solution is to: a) keep overheads minimal, b) have work done by a single lawyer (no handing up and down the chain), c) charge modestly, d) pay ourselves basically what we earn (cutting out the ~40% profit margin or agency clip), all enabling us to e) reduce charges.

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OUR PRACTICE – The Lawyer is IN is a general commercial practice.  We cover most types of legal work that will be encountered by small to medium businesses, not-for-profits, start-ups and publicly funded bodies.  To list a few areas – organisation set-up; sales and distribution contracts ; debt and equity finance; marketing and consumer law; procurement; re-structure or sale of business; technology and privacy.

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In addition, we offer specialised expertise in a few fields – telecommunications, renewable energy and technology, software / licensing, and competition / trade practices.

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CREDENTIALS – Mick Coleman started in 1994 at a top tier Melbourne law firm, then worked in WA government for 5 years, and as a lawyer at Telstra for 13 years, the last 8 as a General Counsel.  In 2015 Mick resumed private practice, joining the partnership at top ten Australian law firm Mills Oakley, where he continues to consult.  Box Forest creates a vehicle for Mick and like-minded senior lawyers, writers and consultants to work with a broader group of clients and projects.      

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CHARGES – our standard legal rates ex GST are around 30% below comparable firm rates - $500/hr, or $2,800 a day.  We offer “low bono” rates for a range of clients and circumstances, and charge less for non-legal consulting work.  The Lawyer is IN model also allows time for pro bono, policy writing, conservation and sustainability work.  Please contact us about any of these things.